Semey attractions

A curious collection of 15 communist busts and statues, mostly Lenins – including Kazakhstan's tallest Lenin! – stands in a small park behind Hotel Semey. Spot the three Kirovs and one Karl Marx lurking among the Le…

This well laid-out museum incorporates the wooden house where the exiled writer lived from 1857 to 1859 with his wife and baby. The displays range over Dostoevsky’s life and works, including his five years in jail a…

Displays at this regional museum run the gamut from prehistoric finds to some rare archaeological pieces, a collection of traditional Kazakh artefacts, the development of Semipalatinsk, local involvement in WWII and…

The collection here, one of the country's best, covers Kazakh, Russian and Western European art from the 16th century onwards, including a not-to-be-missed Rembrandt etching and landscapes, portraits and still-life …

In an unmarked building that's part of Semey Medical University, this one-room museum exhibits the usual pickled organs you might expect medical students to look at – but also a gruesome collection of babies and emb…

On the left, 600m past the end of the bridge that takes you south of the centre, across River Irtysh, is the sombre and impressive Stronger than Death Memorial erected in 2002 for victims of the nuclear tests. Desig…

This museum is dedicated to the 19th-century humanist poet Abay Kunanbaev, whose forward-looking vision of Kazakhstan is not necessarily shared by his followers. Along with displays about Abay’s life and work, the m…

This museum, dedicated to the victims of the Polygon, is due to open in 2018, to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Semey's founding. It will be encased in a 24m-diameter glass sphere resting on a pair of giant …

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